From the Steel (The Gift, p. 504) clichÇ workshop, the romances of a good-hearted, gorgeous girl from Illinois farm country who leaves Dad's tiny airport to become a glamorous aviatrix between World Wars I and II. There's a necessary reference to the workings of planes but nothing to tax the reader bent on romance in this tale of Cassie O'Malley (one of Steel's stunning redheads), who has to fight the prejudice of father Pat, who believes women belong on the ground. Cassie grows up grease-monkeying around O'Malley's Airport and sneaking in flights with brother Chris (who doesn't care for planes). Then she secretly begins lessons with her father's WW I pal, Nick Galvin (when Cassie was a baby he arrived as ``a fresh- faced kid...with a thatch of dark hair hanging into his blue eyes''). Cassie at 17 turns down the local grocer and falls in love with Nick, who returns her affection but thinks he's too old for her. Enter aircraft tycoon Desmond Williams, with ``wavy blond hair and movie star good looks''—always a bad sign. Desmond offers Cassie a great job testing his planes, but it also involves publicity: press conferences, Hollywood escorts, smashing clothes, etc. Then, despite the obvious dangers in the war-bound 1940s, Desmond plans a world tour for Cassie. Nick (about to join the RAF) says no; a quarrel ensues, and Cassie marries Desmond thinking she loves him (``her silvery flesh shimmered next to his in the moonlight''). Cassie makes the tour with a (doomed) good friend as co-pilot; a crash on a desert island is followed by Pearl Harbor heroics. At the close Cassie joins an Air Force women's plane- ferrying unit (nicely researched by Janet Dailey in Silver Wings, Santiago Blue, 1984) and the lovers collide in each other's arms. For Steel fans, soothingly predictable; for others, deadly as a wait in baggage claims. (First printing of 1,000,000; Literary Guild dual main selection)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-385-30605-9
Page Count: 408
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
To her usual mix of love, mystery, and passion, Roberts (Sanctuary, 1997, etc.)—author of 115 romancers in some 17 years—adds Renaissance art and a decidedly Medici-like family: the Joneses of Maine. Dr. Miranda Jones, nearly six feet with flaming red hair and a glacial reserve, is an archeometrist who specializes in the analyzing and dating of Renaissance bronze sculpture. Miranda hopes to secure a world-class reputation for herself by authenticating a 15th-century statue of the Dark Lady, one of the mistresses of Lorenzo the Magnificent, as the undiscovered work of a young Michelangelo. Miranda's mother, Dr. Elizabeth Standford-Jones, the emotionally remote director of the Standjo art lab in Florence, has summoned her daughter from the family's Victorian cliffside home in Jones Point, Maine, to test the statue. Meanwhile, Miranda's father, equally remote, is an archaeologist who spends more time at his digs than at home. In fact, no one in the Jones family has made a successful run at marriage, a failure that Miranda and her alcoholic brother Andrew call the Jones curse. As for the statue, when it's discovered to be a fake, Miranda sets out to prove that someone stole the original. In this she's helped by gorgeous art thief Ryan Boldari (half-Italian, half-Irish), who's come to Jones Point to steal yet another bronze, which also turns out to be a forgery. Ryan's plan had been to use Miranda as a pawn, but now, naturally, he finds himself falling hard for her. While the two search for bronzes, a standard-issue romance-novel psychotic is stalking them. Most readers will twig to the killer's identity: Here, as always, Roberts's sexual tension is more compelling than her suspense. Perhaps it's time to take a sabbatical from the pink sweatshop and turn her considerable wit and narrative skills to a more original piece of work.
Pub Date: March 23, 1998
ISBN: 0-399-14387-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
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